joining me is steve carnaci, co-host of "the cycle. he's writing in "salon" today about paul ryan's thing skin. thanks for coming on the show. >> thanks for having me. is he ready for joe biden? >> it's an open question. one thing we found is he hasn't been ready forred kind of scrutiny that comes with a national spot light. there have been several interviews, in what we all assumed would be friendly turf fox news where at the slightest bit of scrutiny on follow-up questions he's gotten very testy and evasive. you can think of early on back in august in an interview, how long it would take mitt romney's budget to be balance. he said i don't want to be all wonky on you, but i don't know. and chris wallace started grilling him, a promise it will be deficit neutral and very vague promise it will be paid for. so chris wallace said as loop holes and deductions, that's sort of the key. and ryan basically said i don't have the time to get into all the math. >> now, now -- let me put you right there, steve. not joe biden, the vice president pa